A work of gentle, folkloric charm, where a biblical story is retold through dyed and stitched fabric.

Vraliam Towers

1934

William Towers was born in Preston, Lancashire. When he left school at the age of fifteen he became a grocery assistant. After National Service in the army, he worked as a shoe salesman until 1972 when he moved to Leicester and got a job in a boot and shoe factory.

One day he decided to make a collage of Adam and Eve, using scrap material that his mother had accumulated during her working life in a cotton mill. Cutting the pieces into squares, he dyed them in batches, diluting the dye to make different shades of colour.

Later, through George Murray, William Towers met an American who sold his pictures in Los Angeles. Although he was sad to see them go, with his many memories sewn into them, he was pleased that the Americans liked them.

Since 1979, he has made his living as an artist, and now spends much of his time on the Atlantic coast of Morocco where he has a studio which he has converted himself. William Towers has shown his work at the Portal Gallery for ten years and has had several one-man exhibitions. He has also had shows in New York, in the Netherlands and at the Commonwealth Institute, London.

William Towers, a self-taught British artist with a background in Lancashire's textile mills, created unique collages that drew upon his childhood memories of biblical stories. In this piece, a youthful King David sits on a rock playing his lyre, his flock of sheep resting peacefully before him in a serene, pastoral landscape. The artist's technique is both resourceful and sophisticated; the scene is constructed from pieces of cotton, which Towers dyed himself to achieve subtle gradations of color, then cut and stitched with decorative embroidery to render the details of wool and foliage. Titled 'David's Song', the work is a testament to Towers's vision of transforming humble, scrap materials into a work of quiet, spiritual beauty.

Medium: Fabric collage with embroidery

Inscription on Verso: Titled 'DAVID'S SONG', signed 'WILLIAM TOWERS', and dated '1974'.

Condition: Presented under glass in a period faux-bamboo frame. The textile is in excellent condition with no visible damage or fading.

Height 39.5 cm / 15.5”

Width 49.5 cm / 19.5”